Soyapanico‏

URGENT: Why is James called Santiago in Spanish

I also forgot my agenda today so I don't remember all the things I wanted to tell you. Also this computer can't accept my flashdrive so I can't send you all my pictures (I have some pics from my old area and of my new house and Elder R, my new companion, from when he was doing stuff)

But yeah, I'm now in Prusia II, in Soyapango. It's another city connected to San Salvador, but it's like 40 minutes from San Marcos. I'm District Leader of 4 companionships, and our Zone has 2 districts in total (the other district has only 2 Latinos but I'm the only gringo in my district. The Zone Leaders are also in my district). It's super urban, has a ton of stores, and 3 different gangs. But the Ward is pretty healthy, with between 170 and 200 assistence, and the people here give us a ridiculous amount of food. Leaving San Marcos and Elder R was a shame, but this is a very good area. Oh, and I almost had sisters in my district, cus the other district is half sisters. In Usulutan, there were 30 missionaries and 0 sisters, and in San Marcos, they were just not that close. Oh, and my old Zone got divided. But yeah, being a District Leader is interesting, and I'm trying hard to put forward the best example.

My companion is Elder R from Peru, and this is his last transfer. He goes home with Joseph I think. But he's great, we're working hard, and I'm super tired. He is not currently trunky. :> I'll probably be here at least 3 months though, since he'll be leaving.

The best pupusas I've had so far are garlic pupusas. Jalapeño is más o menos, and just a note, there is barely any spicy food in El Salvador. Tried them both this week. I want to try the carrot pupusas but haven't found them.

This week we have our Christmas meeting with Presidente Vásquez, so that's exciting.

Even though we have our own chapel, it's like 20 minutes by foot and half of our area is another 20 minutes (mixed bus and foot).

With contacting, we've been doing better in my new area, and it really helps, because other finding methods are less continuous and require more time to prep. In the past, I've primarily had referrals from members, but always fairly low values there.

As far as El Salvador goes, the two real problems are low education levels (it stops in high school usually) and the gangs. The gangs are really paralysing the nation, because it's gotten much worse the last few years, and given that people can't trust in their own security in the majority of the country, tourism, business, etc just doesn't work, and it just stimulates stuff like youth pregnancy, lower education levels, higher crime rates, etc.